Michael Carey

MICHAEL CAREY

Wall Street needs a talk with grandparents

There's a conversation I would like to have but I never will. With my grandparents. Hannah and Michael Sullivan. They died before I was born.

MICHAEL CAREY

Citizenship came late for Tommy LaPorte

When I met Tommy LaPorte in 1972, he was hanging from the wall of my father's bedroom in Fairbanks. That is, his framed certificate of membership in the Yukon Order of Pioneers, a fraternal organization, was hanging from the wall.

MICHAEL CAREY

Palin exposed state to celebrity culture

Sarah Palin, a onetime beauty queen, a mother of five, the Republican candidate for vice president in 2008, and the former governor of Alaska, has a new incarnation: author.

MICHAEL CAREY

'Old welder' ran roughshod over Alaska

Bill Allen said what you expect from a man standing before a judge at sentencing. I made mistakes, I'm sorry, I know I will be punished. Remember the good I did.

MICHAEL CAREY

Trip to book store recalls who helped through life

I just returned to Anchorage after three weeks seeing America, mostly by rail. The trip began in Portland and continued through Spokane, Minneapolis, New York and Boston.

MICHAEL CAREY

Here's thanks for that Lathrop education

Fifty years ago almost to this day, I started high school. It's an anniversary that leaves me dazed. What happened to the 14 year-old boy with a head full of dreams?

MICHAEL CAREY

Hunt for Grace reveals a crossing of paths

In early 1916, a Fairbanks grand jury indicted eight men for sexually abusing underage girls. The alleged perps were over 40, the girls under 15.

MICHAEL CAREY

Some of Palin's influence has helped us

Every time I write or say anything publicly about Sarah Palin I receive a pile of mail. Hate mail from Palin fans who demand blind adoration of their conservative heroine.

MICHAEL CAREY

Quitting cost Palin hope for high office

Sarah Palin's career as governor of Alaska is over. So is her barely begun career as a serious presidential candidate. The road map to the White House doesn't include a stop at "I quit."

MICHAEL CAREY

Early Alaska judge sided with Native witnesses

During the summer of 1912, President William Howard Taft appointed Frederik E. Fuller of Nome federal judge for Interior Alaska, headquarters Fairbanks. Fuller, a 44-year-old former Pennsylvanian, immediately faced a difficult trial: A murder case scheduled for September in Iditarod.

MICHAEL CAREY

Rape trials didn't stop Big Dan Callahan

Dan Callahan's preferred method of communicating seems to have been bellowing. Perhaps because he spent years as a teamster instructing horses.

MICHAEL CAREY

Young guitarists get Cipollina bequest

John Cipollina was a guitar player. A fine guitar player. His Gibson is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

The author is unknown. The editor of the Alaska Citizen, who published the letter in Fairbanks May 12, 1919, identified him only as a "Close Associate" of the 63-year-old dead man.

MICHAEL CAREY

Death penalty measure gets fair play

House Speaker Mike Chenault and Judiciary Chairman Jay Ramras have introduced a capital punishment bill. Speaker Chenault was straightforward enough in explaining why he wants his bill: Punish the worst offenders and guarantee they never kill again.

Who took the 1905 photos of red-light district in Fairbanks?

The photograph on the right was taken in Fairbanks April 12, 1905. I am sure: The photographer noted the date in the canvas Kodak album in which he kept the negative.

MICHAEL CAREY

Palin is the face of the state, like it or not

If you don't like Sarah Palin, whether you live in Manhattan or Shaktoolik, you better get used to seeing her photograph, reading news stories about her, listening to radio and TV commentators rattle on about her.

ALASKA NOTEBOOK

He knew 50 below

I was in Fairbanks last week. Temperatures in the Tanana Valley hovered at minus 40. I spent hours in my hotel room holed up with books, hardly my intention when I flew north. Harsh weather did not slow me as a teenager. I routinely walked home from Lathrop High -- more than a mile -- after school. My greasy hair froze but I suffered no damage because I stopped at the pool hall to warm up.

MICHAEL CAREY

Dankworth much more than a stereotype

Ed Dankworth, who died Dec. 6 at 80, made news in Alaska for half a century as a police officer, legislator, lobbyist and entrepreneur. In every incarnation, he rose to heights he wouldn't have imagined when he was just a Texas boy.

MICHAEL CAREY

Here's why many voters stuck with Ted

"What is it with you people up there?" a former professor of mine called to ask.

MICHAEL CAREY

Young got breaks, but tenacity can't be ignored

Don Young's political career continues. The 35-year veteran of the House of Representatives appeared headed for certain defeat, but it's now clear Democrat Ethan Berkowitz will not catch him.

MICHAEL CAREY

Don Young still has a certain charm

I think this is Don Young's last campaign. And I think it's time for me to confess that, after 35 years as our congressman, his rough charm is finally beginning to work on me. I like being around Don Young these days.